Companies that provide items such as finished goods or raw materials have a lot of choice in how the items are shipped (in the sense of parcel shipping). If choices are made correctly, the shipper can realize significant savings. The choices, however, are complex enough that having to analyze options for any particular shipping requirement is likely to overwhelm the typical shipping department employee. Although making a choice in how to ship a parcel could be automated for any particular shipper (the sender, not the carrier), the cost of doing so is great enough that most shippers would be reluctant to go ahead with automating the shipping options analysis.
The principal elements of planning the shipping of a parcel or a batch of parcels are first, determining a route for the parcel or each parcel in a batch of parcels (called routing), and second, determining a rate for the parcel or for each parcel in the batch of parcels. In planning for a single parcel, only routing and rating are performed. In planning for shipping a batch of parcels, it is also desirable to examine opportunities to consolidate the parcels, and if some shipments can be consolidated, to prorate the costs of shipping each consolidated parcel (i.e. to apportion the costs of a load of several consolidated shipments of parcels among the individual parcels).
Given an overall system for managing parcel shipping, such as that disclosed in the related application, “SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PARCEL SHIPPING,” what is needed is a set of related tables for representing plans for shipping parcels, plans that can include shipping a parcel in cooperation with the shipping of other parcels. Ideally, such a set of tables would include allowing plans for a direct shipment; a direct consolidation; a multistop truckload; a distribution center truckload; a consolidation out of a distribution center; a combination multistop, distribution center, and consolidation; and nested loads.